This tutorial shows how to create dynamic slideshow by fetching the data from XML and the slideshow.
This tutorial covers reading XML using XPathAPI, Conditional operator, MovieClipLoader, setTimeout.
XPathAPI:
The native XPathAPI class allows us to search the XML nodes and attributes within XML that’s loaded in to flash.
To know more about using XPathAPI click here

Conditional Operator:
Using conditional operator is similar to if else statement.

Example:

var test_boolean : Boolean = true
if(test_boolean)
trace(”I am True”);
else
trace(”I am False”);
//output:I am True

Same code using the conditional operator

var test_boolean : Boolean = true
test_boolean == true ? trace(”I am True”) : trace(”I am False”);
//output:I am True

setTimeout:
setTimeOut() method is an undocumented feature of flash8. This method is very useful when we need to call a function after specified duration of time. But not more than once.
Simple usage:

setTimeout(sayHello, 1000);
function sayHello() {
 trace(”Hello, welcome here!”);
}

Passing argument:

And incase we need to pass some argument then

setTimeout(sayHello, 1000,”Hello, welcome here!”);
function sayHello( arg:String ) {
 trace(arg);
}

Â

Slideshow Code:

import mx.transitions.Tween;
import mx.transitions.easing.*;
import mx.xpath.XPathAPI;
var delay:Number;
var animationDuration:Number;
var current_num:Number = 0;
var first_num:Number = 0;
var image_holder:MovieClip = this.createEmptyMovieClip(”image_holder”, this.getNextHighestDepth());
var mcl_lis:Object = new Object();
var mcl:MovieClipLoader = new MovieClipLoader();
mcl.addListener(mcl_lis);
var xml:XML = new XML();
xml.ignoreWhite = true;
xml.onLoad = function( isLoaded:Boolean )
{
 if( isLoaded )
 {
  data_arr = XPathAPI.selectNodeList(this.firstChild,”Slideshow/images/image”);
  delay = parseInt(XPathAPI.selectSingleNode(this.firstChild,”Slideshow/settings/delay”).firstChild);
  animationDuration = parseInt(XPathAPI.selectSingleNode(this.firstChild,”Slideshow/settings/animationDuration”).firstChild);
  //optional code to check delay and animationDuration values
  (delay == undefined || delay == null) ? delay = 5000: delay<1000? delay =1000:true;
  (animationDuration == undefined || animationDuration == null) ? animationDuration = .8: animationDuration<.3? animationDuration =.8:true;
  load_image();
 }else
 {
  trace(”XML Load error”);
 }
}
xml.load(”XML/data.xml”)

function load_image()
{
 mcl.loadClip(data_arr[current_num].attributes.url, image_holder);
 (current_num>=data_arr.length-1) ? current_num = first_num:current_num++;
}

mcl_lis.onLoadInit = function(target_mc:MovieClip) {
 var obj:Tween = new Tween(target_mc, “_alpha”, Normal.easeIn, 0, 100, .5, true);
  setTimeout(function(){
        var obj:Tween = new Tween(target_mc, “_alpha”, Normal.easeIn, 100, 0, .5, true);
         obj.onMotionFinished = function() {load_image();};
       },5000);
};

In loadImage function we are loading the next image using MovieClip Loader and Checking the present number of image against the last.
mcl.loadClip(data_arr[current_num].attributes.url, image_holder);
 (current_num>=data_arr.length-1) ? current_num = first_num:current_num++;

Here I am not going to explain the full code bcoz after the above description and XPath tutorial; it’s very easy to understand.

Updated SlideShow

Cheers
-sara